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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

Just outfitted my slack 10.0 laptop with a new kernel. acpi had issues on kernel 2.6.10 that I'd heard were fixed in the 2.6.11 series and yes they were (no more clock speedup in sleep mode). Now the bad news - my graphics are terrible - all jittery and jumpy and the cpu is churning away at 30 -40% capacity for no apparent reason. I have one of those problematic ATI Radeon cards (mobility 7500), but it was working fine, and I swear I didn't touch any graphics settings when I compiled the new kernel. I compiled beginning with my old 2.6.10 kernel so naturally some things have changed... Since then I have been fiddling with the xorg settings and playing around with the kernel configuration but it has not helped.

and here are relevant sections from .config (I modifed these after the problems appeared and it didn't help).

Code:

#
# Hardware configuration
#
CONFIG_FT_STD_FDC=y
# CONFIG_FT_MACH2 is not set
# CONFIG_FT_PROBE_FC10 is not set
# CONFIG_FT_ALT_FDC is not set
CONFIG_FT_FDC_THR=8
CONFIG_FT_FDC_MAX_RATE=2000
CONFIG_FT_ALPHA_CLOCK=0
CONFIG_AGP=y
CONFIG_AGP_ALI=m
CONFIG_AGP_ATI=m
CONFIG_AGP_AMD=m
CONFIG_AGP_AMD64=m
CONFIG_AGP_INTEL=m
CONFIG_AGP_INTEL_MCH=m
CONFIG_AGP_NVIDIA=m
CONFIG_AGP_SIS=m
CONFIG_AGP_SWORKS=m
CONFIG_AGP_VIA=m
CONFIG_AGP_EFFICEON=m
CONFIG_DRM=y
# CONFIG_DRM_TDFX is not set
# CONFIG_DRM_R128 is not set
CONFIG_DRM_RADEON=m
# CONFIG_DRM_I810 is not set
# CONFIG_DRM_I830 is not set
# CONFIG_DRM_I915 is not set
# CONFIG_DRM_MGA is not set
# CONFIG_DRM_SIS is not set
.....
#
# Graphics support
#
# CONFIG_FB is not set
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y
#
# Console display driver support
#
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
# CONFIG_MDA_CONSOLE is not set
CONFIG_DUMMY_CONSOLE=y

I'd take a look at the configuration using make menuconfig to see just what graphics support has been compiled into the new kernel. If it isn't right, well you're already there so go ahead and configure and recompile it.

Thanks for the response. I think I got rid of a few things in the configuration that I may have needed, so I've gone back in and am recompiling from the beginning without those changes. So the 2.6.11.6 kernel will have identical graphics support to the 2.6.10 (maybe). Hopefully it will work. I don't know why, but whenever I recompiile a kernel I am always tempted to get rid of things that look unnecessary and don't just stick to the task at hand.

I'll let you know if it works on rebooting....

Cheers,
geomatt

edit:

egag - thanks for the suggestion. It reveals something bizzare - wmpower ( a dockapp that checks the acpi system) is the culprit - it's using about 25% of cpu.

Thanks again all,
Next day's report:
Tweaking has helped a little, but there are still issues. I have basically reproduced the configuration that was working in 2.6.10, but still there is no comparison between the old kernel and then new. Maybe I have missed some details that are important, so I'll keep looking at the .config files I'm collecting and see what I can figure out. Part of the problem is that I am not sure what all of those options mean :P

I'll also see if I can find drivers, but this graphics card stuff is pretty over my head....

Found a solution - I recompiled the kernel with agp as a module, not built in to the kernel. Now that pesky dockapp wmpower is still wasting cpu time (20%) but the display is smooth as butter - (I even got 500 fps on glxgears....). I'll have to look for a lighter weight battery monitor.

If anyone is having similar issues I can post my kernel .config and xorg.conf.